The Pact That Broke Heaven

Selene

She couldn't stop shaking.

Even hours after Kael brought her back to the fortress, her hands trembled like leaves in the storm. Her dreams no longer belonged to her—they belonged to Valeria. To the woman she used to be. To the queen who once made gods bleed.

Kael watched her from across the chamber, saying nothing, waiting.

Finally, she spoke.

"I need to show you."

He frowned. "What?"

"What I did," she said, stepping forward. "What made them fear me."

She touched his chest with her palm—and pulled him into the memory.

---

Then – A Thousand Years Ago

They stood in a marble temple high above the world. The air shimmered with starlight and magic, and the altar at the center bled golden ichor.

Kael gasped. "Where are we?"

Selene—Valeria—stepped forward, dressed in obsidian robes. Her eyes glowed with power no mortal should've held.

"The Temple of Oaths," she whispered. "Where I betrayed them."

She moved to the altar, where a blade rested—curved, ancient, humming with hunger.

Kael's eyes widened. "The Godslayer."

Valeria didn't flinch.

"They told me I had to obey. That my love, my choices, my grief—meant nothing to them."

She ran her hand along the blade.

"So I made them bleed."

---

Kael

He watched, helpless, as she raised the blade and sliced through the heart of the oath-binding god. The temple shook. The sky outside cracked. Divine blood sprayed across the marble, sizzling like acid.

Then the scream.

Not human.

Not godly.

A scream that tore through planes of reality.

And in its wake: silence.

That was how it began.

Not with ambition.

With heartbreak.

"You cursed them," Kael whispered. "All of them."

"No," she said softly. "I cursed us all."

---

Present Day – The Fortress

Selene snapped back into her body with a cry.

Kael caught her before she collapsed. "How did you survive it?"

"I didn't," she said. "Not really."

She looked up at him, her voice cracking.

"The moment I made that cut, I stopped being Valeria. The gods called me Eidryn—the Curse Queen. They tore my soul apart and buried it across generations."

Kael brushed hair from her face. "And now?"

"Now I'm whole again."

A long silence.

Then Kael said, "And what are you going to do with that power?"

Selene looked toward the red-slit sky, her expression hardening.

"I'm going to finish what I started."

---

Meanwhile – The Queen's Spire

The Queen stood before her mirror, her hands trembling.

"She remembers," she whispered.

The knight at her side remained still.

The Queen bared her teeth. "That throne was mine."

"She made it," the knight said. "She can unmake it."

The Queen struck the mirror.

It cracked.

Then she turned toward the shadows behind her.

"Unleash the Hallowed Wretch," she ordered. "Let's see if Valeria bleeds the same way Selene does."

And in the dark below the palace, something ancient crawled free, stitched from bone, fire, and divine wrath.